Anders Albertson maintains lead through 54 holes of Visit Knoxville Open

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee – For the first time in his professional career, Anders Albertson holds a 54-hole lead. Albertson, vying for his second Korn Ferry Tour win, birdied four of his final six holes and carded a bogey-free 5-under 65 in Saturday’s third round of the Visit Knoxville Open, reaching 16-under par and taking the outright lead with a birdie at the par-5 18th.

Albertson will enter Sunday’s final round one stroke ahead of Carl Yuan, the current Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List leader, and two strokes ahead of Taylor Montgomery, who finished No. 26 on both the 2020-21 Regular Season Points List and 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals Points List last season.

“The course was very difficult today,” Albertson said. “The greens were really firm, so I think the whole group was struggling to get birdie looks early. We were trying to get a feel for it. For whatever reason, I got in a better groove on the back nine and I got a couple birdies in a row there which was nice.”

Albertson opened with a birdie at the par-4 first, a hole he birdied each of the first two rounds as well. The 28-year-old who plays from Atlanta, Georgia rattled off 11 consecutive pars until his late-round heater, when he birdied Nos. 13, 14, 15 (another hole he birdied for a third time this week), and 18. The highlight of Albertson’s round came at the 212-yard par-3 14th, where he hit the pin and nearly made a hole-in-one before he settled for a tap-in birdie.

“It was probably the most solid shot I hit all day,” Albertson said, “I just held up a 6‑iron and that's a really hard par 3. Honestly, you're just trying to fly it in the middle and just hope it stays on. We couldn't see, it was so far away, but it definitely hit the flag and we heard the noise of the people and I got up there and it was like an inch away.”

To close out his third round, Albertson made an up-and-down birdie from the right greenside bunker protecting the front the par-5 18th.

In 120 Korn Ferry Tour starts prior to this week, Albertson’s only leads were an 18-hole outright lead and 36-hole co-lead at the 2021 Veritex Bank Championship. Albertson stood inside the top three after 54 holes of two events last season – solo second, his career-high 54-hole position, at the 2020 Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS (finished T5) and 2020 WinCo Foods Portland Open presented by KraftHeinz (finished T11). Prior to his win at the 2018 Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS, Albertson stood T3 through 54 holes.

“I'm not really thinking about winning,” said Albertson, whose best finish this season is T4 at the Lake Charles Championship. “If it happens, it’s great, but I know, for me, after making a bunch of mistakes in my career, it’s about being as free as I can. I know that there's 18 very difficult holes left that I have to take care of before another win would become a reality, but it is comforting to think back that I've done it before. I've been in a big moment and can just be present and calm in my body when things are on the line. It’s helpful.”

Albertson is back with the Korn Ferry Tour for the second consecutive season after he played the 2018- 19 campaign on the PGA TOUR. The Georgia Tech alum ended the 2018 Korn Ferry Tour regular season ranked No. 8 and earned his first PGA TOUR card, but finished 172nd the 2018-19 FedExCup Standings and fell back to the Korn Ferry Tour. In the combined 2020-21 season, Albertson finished No. 64 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List, granting him fully exempt status for the 2022 season. In eight starts this year, Albertson has six made cuts and two top-25s.

Yuan shot the low round of the day, a career-low 8-under 62, and pulled within a stroke of Albertson. Yuan was the first player who crossed the 900-point mark the Korn Ferry Tour is currently using as it’s fail-safe threshold for players to finish among The 25 and earn a PGA TOUR card at regular season’s end. The 25-year-old native of Dalian, China won the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS back in March and finished T2 at The Panama Championship and a T3 at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay this year.

Final-round tee times will run in groups of three from 8:50 a.m. through 11:00 a.m. local time off the first and 10th tee. The final group will consist of Albertson, Yuan, and Montgomery.